Computing Pioneers | Blaise Pascal : Inventor of the mechanical calculator

Blaise Pascal, the inventor of the mechanical calculator. Blaise was born on 19th June 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France. His father Étienne Pascal and his mother Antoinette Bégaume. Unfortunately, when Pascal was three years old, his mother had passed away. In 1642, Pascal constructed a mechanical calculator capable of addition and subtraction called Pascaline. Four are held by a museum in Paris and one more at a German museum. These machines are pioneering forerunners to a further 400 years of mechanical calculation. Pascaline, also called the arithmetic machine, it was the first calculator or adding machine to be produced in any quantity and actually used. Pascal invented the machine for his father, a tax collector. He built 50 of them over the next 10 years. operation principles which were later used to plan public transport. The carriages would have a fixed route, fixed price and would leave even if there were no passengers. His most notable contribution in physics would be Pascal's law, an important principle of hydrostatics. The name Pascal was given to the SI unit of pressure. He also created the arithmetical triangle and the development of probability theory. In 1659, Pascal fell seriously ill. In 1662, Pascal's illness became more violent and his emotional condition had severely worsened after his sister's death. In Paris on 18 August 1662, Pascal went into convulsion. He died the next morning. An autopsy performed after his death revealed grave problems with his stomach and other organs of his abdomen along with damage to his brain.